AP/Ng Han Guan
Shares of Chinese e-commerce retailer JD.com plunged as much as 8% on Wednesday after Walmart disclosed that it sold its stake in the company.
Walmart sold 144.5 million shares of JD.com for $24.95 per share, representing a total sale of about $3.6 billion, according to a filing made with the SEC and a report from Bloomberg.
The share sale price occurred at an 11% discount from JD.com's closing price on Tuesday. Shares of JD.com traded at around $26 on Wednesday, still about 4% above the price at which Walmart sold its stake.
The share sale by Walmart marks the end of an eight-year partnership between the two retailers, though the retail giant told the FT that it still plans to collaborate with JD.com.
Walmart first acquired a 5% stake in JD.com in 2016 when it was seeking to level up its retail business in China, and it eventually grew that stake to about 10%.
But the near-decade-long partnership has been plagued by a volatile economic environment in China amid an ongoing slowdown inboth their property market and overall consumption by consumers.
Muted returns for Chinese technology stocks over the past few years also haven't helped the situation.
The iShares MSCI China ETF is trading at the same level today as it was in 2016, when Walmart struck its deal with JD.com, while the KraneShares CSI China Internet ETF is down about 13% since 2016.
Walmart said in a statement that the sale would enable the company to "better focus on the country's strong development of China, including the operation of Walmart Supercenter and Sam's Club, and allocate assets to other priorities."
For its part, Walmart's Sam's Club business has seen growing success in China in recent years as Chinese consumers gravitate toward deals offered by wholesale club retailers.
Walmart opened its first Sam's Club store in China in 1996 and now operates 48 locations in the country.
